Fire Service Ethics Chapter 13 Breaking Bread

2 7 2 2 7 4 275 Chapter 13 Breaking Bread Unethical, bad behavior and Inappropriate conduct: The reason: most people, including firefighters, or less Ethical than they would like to believe 1. Common factor  Firefighters involve likely feel that they are moral people caught in a bad situation  Nearly all individuals involved in unethical behavior, think that they are relatively good people, and that there were special circumstances that led to their behavior  Ethical ignorance  Their actions were somehow justified 2. Bad people in the world  Sociopath  Mentally ill  Emotionally damaged The psychology of unethical behavior 1. Normal people  Have a conscience and a set of internal values  Expected to act consistently with their values  Typically, do not suddenly abandoned, rationality, and morality  Self-image and internal values restrain people from acting too far out of character - When people behave badly, they must neutralize those restraints Dissonance: Assume that poor behavior is either accompanied by a skewed understanding of circumstances or by rationalization of behavior 1. COGNITIVE DISSONANCE (The feeling of discomfort we feel when we perceive an inconsistency among values, beliefs, and attitudes)  Inconsistent with her understanding of truth  Internal stress that presents itself when we act irrationally  Bad actor must align their actions with a sense of reality to avoid cognitive dissonance  Unexplained event  Willful ignorance 2. MORAL DISSONANCE (internal conflict between an individual’s action and their personal values)  Inconsistent with our personal values, our understanding of right and wrong we experience  Internal stress that presents itself when we act away that is inconsistent with our self-image  Closely associated with having a crisis of conscience  Arises when Human behavior is not understood 3. MORAL DISENGAGEMENT (process of convincing the self that ethical standards do not apply to yourself in a particular context)  active, avoiding moral dissonance by reshaping attitudes, or rationalizing behavior, so it remains constant with values  Assumption that the moral compass is referenced, but ignored  Bad behavior is rationalized  Tend to reshape attitudes towards behavior ATRIBUTION THEORY (Theory explaining the discrepancy between judging your own behavior versus other behaviors) duality in the interpretation of ethical contact “Double standard “ 1. Internal attribution: when others act inappropriately, the behavior is attributed to flaws in their character 2. External attribution: we tend to attribute the behavior to external influences 3. Judging self-behavior, we deal more readily with shades of gray  New tribute bad behavior to external influences because we have a deeper appreciation of them  We are more tolerant of our own behavior because it is simply more comfortable 4. As a result, we create coping strategies for excusing, bad behavior, thus maintaining a self-image of being a good person MORAL APATHY (Lack of moral engagement, bringing from a lack of awareness or cognitive 276 disengagement) “not caring. “ 1. Actions are evaluated according to our internal sense of right and wrong and, found lacking, are pursued anyways  Moral disengagement 2. There is a general lack of moral engagement, not thinking about ethical consequence  Lack of moral engagement can be a form of contextual confusion  Willful ignorance (cognitive dissonance) 3. On ethical actions are normalized, or an environment is created in which the ethics of the situation become irrelevant Environmental conditions 1. Firefighters who are surrounded by unethical people tend to downgrade their values or lower their expectations of ethical behavior 2. Ethical standards may be an adaptive behavior to maintain social acceptance 3. Behaviors become normalized, personal values and attitudes can be reshaped 4. Values are initially learned by observation 5. Strong, ethical mentors who continues the display moral behavior seems to have a more prolific effect on raising the behavior standard 6. There is evidence that firefighters who work for unethical leaders are much more likely to behave unethically then those who are led by positive role models Expectations 1. Firefighters tend to act according to expectations 2. It is human nature to test limits  If breaking rule is ignored, then rule B will likely be subsequently tested. This testing is repeated into a minimum standard of behavior is established. 3. Experiences also shown that small infractions lead to bigger ones Perspective 1. There are internal processes that can affect moral engagement 2. High ranking officers  Officers with significant authority are usually also granted a great deal of institutional freedom  Officers may come to believe that they are inherently different from other firefighters and so are bound to different rules  “Small indiscretions lead to big sins” “Pride goeth before the fall” 3. “Tunnel vision “hyper awareness of a particular situation to the exclusion of the bigger picture  Highly motivated and result oriented, achievers may start to believe that situations may justify, or even require “bending the rules “ 4. “It is better to ask for forgiveness and permission “impending ethics breach is in the making 5. When firefighters convince themselves that playing by the rules, impede success, they are demonstrating a potentially dangers attitude towards procedure restraint 6. Context can also affect perspective  For example, a firefighter who would never steal someone else’s property may feel it is OK to liberate a case of alcohol from a fire scene  For example, 2016 steroid use in baseball investigation into illicit drugs use revealed some surprising results. Use was so common that players and managers did not even think to question the ethics. 7. FRAMING (theory describing how our responses to situations, include our ethical judgments, are affected by how those situations are posed or viewed) 8. Different set of cognitive processes  The awareness of moral consequences and intentions are heightened, and so the consequences judge with regard to outcome and process 9. Framing, ethical decision separate outcomes from process  Create a sense of duality: personal self (behavior focused) in the work self (outcome focused) become separate  “Split ethical personalities”: contacts can create, the personal self and the work self 10. Ethical “laziness “  Aristotle belief that being virtuous was a result of habituation. He felt that attention to acting ethically and thinking ethically eventually made virtues become second nature.  For some habit of ethical and moral thinking has never been ingrained - Poor behavior is undertaken absent consideration of outcome, intent, or consistence with personal values - Ignoring moral instincts can become a habit 11. Firefighters may act without consideration of consequences due to distraction or simply out of habit 279 280 281  Unethical behavior can be self-reinforcing  Poor ethics often lead to future unethical conduct The Process of Moral disengagement  Cognitive disengagement  Creating false moral justifications  Normalizing the behavior  Minimizing the consequences  Dehumanizing the victim 1. Getting around our Conscience requires self-deception and rationalization, and the process becomes easier with each escalating unethical act 2. The act of moral disengagement includes one of several processes, but most cases it begins with a singular evaluation 3. If an action is considered inconsistent with personal values, it must be abandoned, or moral dissonance occurs 4. If the motivation to pursue an action is strong enough that conscience is overridden. Then the evaluation process must be altered if moral dissonance is to be avoided. 5. To overcome that dissonance, one more mental process are employed supporting a course of action with questionable, ethical implications 6. Focusing intently, enough on the desired outcome, a natural tendency to rationalize its achievement is engaged 7. Notions that the end justifies the means or that the inappropriate behavior constitutes some forms of justice are introduced into the thought process 8. Questionable actions to occur, moral restraint must be overcome COGNITIVE DISENGAGEMENT (Suspension of rational understanding, or an exercise in self-deception)  It can be an important first step in the process of moral disengagement  Create a false narrative in support of an otherwise unethical action  For example, self-identified Christian patriots to firebomb a synagogue. They must not only rationalize a behavior that is inconsistent with their moral compass, but also suspend their cognitive understanding of the precepts of their religion and the US Constitution.  Resulting in compatibility between hatred of other religions and understanding of illegal, and religious doctrine is an example of cognitive dissonance  To overcome cognitive dissonance (tension or clash), tactics that allow the creation of false logic or cognitive disengagement (withdraw/detach)  Ignoring facts that are inconvenient to an opinion  Reshaping facts - Similar tactic is reshaping facts by inference - For example, someone may deny global warming based on the observation that there’s been an unusually cold winter  Questioning the source of an establish fact - Dismiss information simply because it does not come from a source they support  Cognitively justifying an action by simply drawing conclusions that are not supported by fact Creating false moral justifications 1. For example, a firefighter falsely turns in a request for overtime that they did not do  Firefighter argues that they are entitled to the hours because over the past years they have worked several hours that were uncompensated  Even if true, rationale does not support falsifying the document  Displaced, ethical restraint by internally, justifying the actions  There is a false argument that being deceitful attain justice  Personal values are set aside as of professional responsibilities  Seek to accuse inappropriate behavior to maintain a positive self-image 2. The creation of false moral justification does not represent a change in ethical values Normalizing the behavior 1. Group consensus can alter moral standards 2. Common phrases consistent with behavioral normalization  Others do it more than me  I don’t make up the rules  They started it  It’s just the way it is 3. For example, firefighters, engaged in harassment, disguised as hazing are likely to excuse the behavior as “it’s a tradition and they did it when I was a newcomer. “  It does not soothe the internal feeling of moral dissonance 282 283 285 4. Behavioral normalization is particularly effective in displacing, ethical restraint  History is demonstrated that entire communities will engage in looting, vandalism, and violence, even though as individual members of the crowd would likely never participate in such behavior 5. We are willing to suspend her moral compass, if given permission by community standards 6. Group standards of behavior are irrelevant to the individuals’ values Minimizing of consequences: The Robin Hood story. Is he a thief or a hero? 1. Perception is minimized 2. The intentions offset the consequences  Making a false argument  The end justifies the means 3. Rationalization that an unethical action is an isolated incident  Argues that stealing twice is more unethical and stealing once 4. Problem with consequence minimization  Exacerbated by the argument of the slippery slope  Unethical actions tend to pay the way for further unethical actions Dehumanizing the victim 1. Ethics is intrinsically Tied to relationships with other individuals 2. An essential element of the moral disengagement process is the dehumanization of the victim 3. For individuals who possess a conscience, sense of writer, wrong, and healthy self image, it is nearly impossible to condone mistreatment of others, viewed as equals 4. Perpetrators of immoral act, including those who witness, but do not intervene, rationalize that the victims are unworthy or culpable 5. Phrases victim dehumanization: “they are not like us “ “they don’t belong here “”they brought it on themselves. “ 6. Making others “less than “or culpable in their own fate is imperative to the process of moral disengagement  All other forms of rationalization sit upon the single important suspension of moral restriction Avoiding moral disengagement 1. Moral disengagement is an exercise and self-deception 2. MORAL RATIONALIZATION (they bring a particular conclusion as a result of some factors, such as self-interest, that is a little justificatory logical relevance)  First step in maintaining high ethical standards 3. Common rationalizations employed by those attempting to convince themselves and others that the actions are appropriate  Inevitable: “If I don’t do it, someone else will “action remains ethical or unethical to the same degree regardless of whether anyone else participates or not  Personal debt: “I am owed this” precipitating factors do not change the consequences of behavior or its intent  Non-responsibility: “It’s not my problem. “egoism would argue that we are not responsible for others.  Humanity defense: “I am human “or “nobody’s perfect “not justification for indulging in unethical behavior. This is also used by people who indulge in premeditated unethical act and try to pass them office honest mistakes.  Downplay the scope: “yes, it was a bad choice, but I could’ve done worse. “ attempts to excuse behavior by comparing it to a perceived worse offense.  The fake conundrum: “I really had no choice “ seeks to mitigate responsibility for an immoral action by pleading that the circumstances insisted on it  Rationalizing of extraordinary circumstances: “we can’t afford to be the good guys right now. “assumes that doing the right thing will bring negative consequences. This is also an attempt at creating false dilemma.  Caveat emptor: “It is not my fault that they were stupid enough to fall for it. “form of the argument, that “might make right “people who are unable to defend themselves or somehow undeserving of consideration, but ethics requires just the opposite.  Normalization: “everybody does it “ most common rationalizations. Employed to excuse unethical conduct. Falsely assumes that the ethical nature of an act is somehow elevated if numerous people engage in it. Avoiding rationalization Simple questions to ask as a effective guide to determine whether or not intended actions are disguised, rationalizations, or inappropriate behavior: 1. Under normal circumstances, would I consider this action to be right or wrong? 2. Am I hearing or using language that is downplay what’s really happening? 286 293 3. Am I excusing harm to others by placing blame? 4. Am I responsible for the outcome of the action I am about to take? 5. Am I about to harm someone? MORAL ENGAGEMENT (Focus on ethical issues in an awareness of consequences) 1. Best assurance of ethical behavior is to engage in moral engagement 2. Opposite of moral disengagement 3. Requires strength of character and commitment to behaving responsibly, even in the face of significant contrary social pressure 4. Aristotle: suggested, must be practiced until it becomes a habit 5. Being morally engaged requires:  Accepting responsibility for your own behavior - First step is acknowledge of responsibility - Hallmark of unethical behavior is undertaking actions and self interest followed by an attempt to shift responsibility  Exercising empathy: - Understand the needs, desires, and motivation of others  Exercising sympathy - Engagement of emotional attachment to those feelings and thoughts - Absent and emotional connection to others, ethics is reduced to an exercise and calculation - Human connection is an absolute requirement for morale and ethics  Respecting the right of others - Kant’s categorical imperative stated that each human being is a moral agent and failing to respect the rights associated with humanity was inherently unethical. Getting sucked in: Well, intended individuals find themselves involved in the misdeeds of others 1. ENABLING BEHAVIOR (actively or passively supporting the action of others)  Looking the other way  Involved as a participant in a conspiracy 2. Process of an ethical engagement among enablers is significantly different than that of an initiator of bad behavior  First, tend to rationalize their participation through the intent of helping others  Second, their involvement typically starts off relatively innocent, but escalates  For example, Firefighter uses someone else’s radio and loses it. Because he’s done it in the past, he waits several days to report it missing. Firefighter bags, another firefighter to keep quiet both lie about the radio. - Situation is obscured by sympathy(emotion) - Displaces sense of obligation (cognitive understanding) 3. Sometimes triggered by a desire to help others or buy a sense of loyalty 4. Sense of right and wrong can be skewed by both perspective and proximity 5. Self-deception may be the most difficult for an individual to recognize 6. Empathy may be more compelling than even that of self-preservation Chapter 14 Contemporary Issues 1. 2. 3. 4. 294 295 Specific issues faced by firefighters and explore the ethical considerations relevant to them. Ethical concepts did define common problems at regularly cause ethical debate or confusion Engaging in critical, thinking regarding issues, you can develop consistency in your approach Can be explored from common frames of reference, including responsibility, social obligation, personal value, and virtues 5. Viewpoint of a professional ethics  Professional responsibility and obligations are the primary consideration  Personal values, needs and wants often shape, professional judgment 6. Major challenge of the profession is that every day bring something different. Not surprisingly, moral and ethical challenge faced by the Fire Service are diverse. Privacy issues 1. Information is power and increasingly it is currency 2. Few organizations are implicitly trusted as much as the Fire Service Medical information 1. (HIPAA)HEALTH INSURANCE PORTABILTIY AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT (1996, mandates Industry wide standards for healthcare info on billing, and requires the protection and confidential handling of protected health info)  Provide ability to transfer and continue care insurance coverage for millions of American workers 296 298 and their families when they change or lose their job  Reduce healthcare fraud and abuse  Mandate industry wide standards  Require the protection and confidential handling of protected health info 2. Certain info may not be legally protected, firefighters are still ethically, bounded to protect patient privacy 3. Indiscrete and unofficial sharing of private info is unethical General gossip 1. For example, firefighters respond for smoking a house for a local weatherman. The homeowner is a hoarder a few days later the Firefighter tells friends, and it ends up on social media.  Caused personal harm to an individual who called for help  Spreading gossip about customers is a betrayal of trust 2. Primary concept of ethics  First, to do no harm  Second, to act in good faith 3. Betrayal, trust is inconsistent with virtues associated with ethical behavior 4. Trust is the firefighters most important asset 5. There is an ethical responsibility to maintain professionalism The ethics of body cameras 1. BODY CAMERA (Body worn video, recording system typically used by law-enforcement. Increases both officer and citizen accountability.) 2. Body camera has allowed for extensive documentation and proliferation of emergency scenes and operations  Benefits for training programs  For causing origin investigations  Potential evidence and civil proceedings  Transparency for the public 3. Problematic incentives for capturing fire scenes on video  Personal websites and blogs  Sold to local news outlets  Filming victims without their consent is a privacy concern 4. Any shop by firefighters were on duty theoretically belongs to the fire department  Therefore, it would be unethical to distribute video without departments permission  Department has the right to control the release of the video 5. Access to victims, and their property are restricted by emergency personnel for safety reasons and to protect victim privacy  Grant access to personal property and personal space  are present for the sole purpose of rendering aid  Capitalizing on access for personal gain is unethical Mass communications: Social media and blogs 1. Social and ethical ramifications are significant 2. Given access to global audience 3. Has an element of anonymity 4. Often able to escape accountability for content 5. Responsible for self-censorship  What we choose to “broadcast “is entirely up to an individual discretion, honesty, and intentions 6. Miscommunications can have a significant impact on the lives of others, and therefore it has ethical implications Social media 1. Hot button issue in firehouse policy 2. Numerous disciplinary actions based on in discrete use of social media 3. Rooted in 3 different social media qualities  Hard to control  Pervasive  Unlimited shelf-life 4. Social media is a “thing “in animate object  It is not ethical nor unethical in and of itself  Ethics entirely based on content and intent  Social media is not the problem, the underlining ethics of it use is - About the inappropriate behavior 5. Social media palsy may exasperate the problem by appearing to focus the departments objective to 300 304 sharing picture rather than taking the picture in the first place 6. Abuse of social media is a symptom not a cause 7. Restricting use of social media is a band aid at Best  Accomplished through training, education, and engaged leadership BLOGS (Discussion or Informational website published on the worldwide web and consistent of discrete, often informal diary, style text entries) 1. One of the most productive innovations in modern communication technology 2. Ability to share their opinions, interest, and wisdom with the world 3. Having legal protection to say something does not mean that an expression is ethical 4. Issues of integrity, honesty, and the consequences of expression are ethical issues, not legal ones 5. Firefighters who write blogs or editorials are ethically responsible for the content and for the ramifications 6. Untrue statements are, of course, ethically suspect, yet the condition of truthfulness does not necessarily mitigate ethical responsibility  A truthful statement may still be damaging 7. It is the content and intent of the material that ultimately defines the relative ethics of the blogger 8. Ethical guidelines are similar to those of social media Off duty activities: Off duty employment, Off duty response, Conduct unbecoming And substance abuse 1. Employment  Some restrictions are based on maintenance of some perceived community moral standards  Working for other fire departments: based on insurance and pension issues  Any employment that interviews with firefighters, physical or mental ability to perform their duties as a breach of responsibility and thus unethical  Firefighters have a responsibility to be physically, mentally and emotionally capable of performing their duties because lives depends on  Because firefighters deal with life and death responsibilities, off duty employment should not interfere with requests for training and continue education  Heart and lung, presumptive, benefits, granted, firefighters, bring into question the ethics of engaging and off duty activities that pose high risk to respiratory and cardiac health  Collective bargaining agreements tend to set “objective obligations “regarding off duty obligations  There is a difference between contractual obligation and ethical responsibility - Professional ethics indicate that a firefighter has a duty to maintain competency  Fire Service speak often about teamwork and loyalty. Unofficial motto “you go, we go. “ - Inherent in that we accept responsibility for our brothers and sisters keeper - Virtue ethics, contract theory and care, ethics, all strongly, imply, and ethical responsibility to uphold the promise 2. Off duty response: render aid off duty  Primary ethical principles: do no harm, minimize harm, whenever possible, contribute to the common good, and honor responsibility 3. Conduct on becoming:  Motives for the fire department to impose punishment for off duty behavior can be classified into 2 categories: - Reputation management - Imposition of perceived community standards for their own sake  MORALITY CLAUSES (morals: provision with any contractor department policy, that cartels, restrains, or prohibits certain behavior for individuals as inappropriate) - Legality of behavior, rest and collective bargaining agreements and the courts  Imposition of behavior standards apart from reputation management or problematic - Temptation to control others behavior so that it conforms to our expectations of right around is a powerful one 4. Substance abuse  Abuse of any substance that physically or mentally impairs their ability to perform those duties is a breach of those responsibilities  Consequences - Significant health issues issue’s - Impact family financial security Social issues: politics And religion 1. Politics  Political acrimony Has led to increasing political, passion, and political discourse often seems to be dominant by extremist - As a result, politics is becoming increasingly poignant in the workplace With frustration and anger comes the urge to vent - Can be annoying to others - Make a firehouse atmosphere completely toxic  At some point in the last 25 years intolerance has been on the rise, and that is perfectly acceptable to insult and belittle individuals who have different political views  Political expression can cross over into vehemence and blatant hostility - Creates a hostile work environment, demoralize others, and potentially interferes with department operations - Even absent of insults that continued unwelcome expression of political views in the workplace can be tantamount to harassment  Prohibiting political backing in several court cases have found that such restrictions are constitutionally prohibited  Some ethical restrictions placed on politically active firefighters - Falsely assert that represents the political views of the FD - Harm they may cause others because of their speech - Provocative and inflammatory political activity may be legal, yet harmful to your follow up firefighters and Department as a whole  As government officials, firefighters are covered by political restrictions specified in the Hatch Act (limit certain political activities by governmental officials) Religion 1. Professional, obligations and personal faith may appear to be in conflict 2. Firefighter is ethically obligated to provide service without biased towards race, religion, nationality, or sexual orientation 3. Do you not have the right to impose beliefs on others, or to create a hostile work environment by repeatedly, interjecting religious doctrine in the workplace? 4. It is ethical imperative to respect the rights of others 5. Separation of church and state exist, protect religious freedom, not to limited. Fire Department have a ethical obligation to respect those individual rights. 6. Firefighters’ faith can be a great source of strength and moral inspiration. However, it cannot supersede a firefighter at the go responsibilities. Harassment 1. Harassing behavior can cause harm, disrespects the humanity of a person being harassed, and it interferes with the primary responsibilities of the Fire Service and individual firefighters 2. Sexual harassment over the last 25 years, is one of the most common variations of harassing behavior 3. Firefighters have been harassed for numerous reasons: physical parents, speech, idiosyncrasies, hygiene, habits, nationality, religion, and ethical background 4. Any behavior that intimidates, belittles, humiliates or ostracizes another is unethical and destructive to the departments, morale and efficiency 5. Matter of ethical principle, each member of society has an obligation to avoid causing harm to others into respect, others autonomy, rights HAZING (Ritualistic, emotional or physical abuse of new group members by existing members) 1. Unique form of harassment 2. Can we departmental injury, legal action, and unwanted National attention 3. Claims that it is harmless or enforces tradition and bonds new members 4. Designed to embarrass therefore is abusive 5. Hazing is about dominance, controlling over another for entertainment, purpose, or empowerment 6. Hazing ceremonies: (intended to embarrass, humiliate, cause fear, or physically stress, the victim) 7. The ethics of hazing does not lie in intent, but rather in consequences On the job relationships 1. Negative consequences  Distracting and make fellow workers uncomfortable  When the relationship ends, they can wreck havoc on productivity and on crew morale  Everyone is affected by the actions of anyone  Has a negative impact on group culture  Fallout can be difficult to manage  Separation after break up can be impractical  Common wisdom is that workplace relationships are ill considered  Display of affection or undo familiarity can make fellow workers uncomfortable 2. Ethics of workplace relationships, very greatly, depending on circumstances  306 307 308 Fellow worker relationships are considered ethical Superior officer and a subordinate is inherently unethical - Undermines the authority of the supervising officer - Decree a negative impact on other firefighters - Assume relationship will result in some form of favoritism - Inviting suspicion of motive in every decision and work assignment - Adverse impact from peers - Interferes with responsibilities - Personal level  Unequal in power  Subordinate has less control  Officer has the ability to bully or course  Knowing that someone can abuse authority may be a threatening as the actual abuse of power 3. Legal exposure/ ramifications  Relationships and barely can be acrimonious (angry/bitter)  Accommodating the involved employees desire to separate  Allegations of harassing behavior  Loss of valued employees  Can argue that undermines the departments efficiency or exposes the department to significant legal expense, which is a breach of that responsibility Staffing and safety 1. Recent trends in tax policy, a diminishing middle-class, and increasing operating cost have conspire to create a funding crisis affecting municipalities across the nation 2. For two decades, there’s been nearly constant pressure on Fire Department staffing levels 3. Firefighters have an asked to “do more with less “ 4. Adequate staffing is an absolute requirement to maintain safety standards 5. Problem of understaffing and Firefighter safety is not just a logistical one, it is also a multi facet ethical dilemma 6. Fighting fire should be considered a profession not a cause and no one should be expected to commit suicide to save a 1500-foot ranch style home 7. If a municipality cannot or will not provide adequate resources, then fired administration has an ethical responsibility to scale back services to protect their employees 8. The difficulty in performing a risk benefit analysis is in determining acceptable risk 9. The responsibility of an officer to be competent and fire tactics is paramount, and because firefighters lives depend on it, competence and caution or ethical imperatives 10. Concept of “risking a lot, is ethically problematic  Those, ethics of “risking a lot to save a lot “seems justifiable. The balancing of firefighter lives against the imperative of protecting civilian lives as a significant ethical issue, complicated by high emotion. 11. Ethical priorities  First, do no harm  Second, one possible, minimize harm to others  The second ethical priority is not justification for ignoring the first 12. A fire officer is ethically justified in limiting responses if there are in adequate resources Alternative funding / Selling Fire Service 1. PAY FOR SPRAY (Euphemism for the practice of contracting fire protection, usually on an annual basis to unincorporated areas) 2. From a business sense, the withholding of service to non-customers is both logical and ethical.  However, withholding services has significantly stronger, ethical implications than does withholding other types of service  Over 200 years as a prototypical benefice organization 3. Human life, supersedes financial concerns 4. Our apartments are unique in  They are public funded organizations  With holding service for financial consideration, is inconsistent with the Fire Service values 5. The argument that ethical attachment to provide service is created by the Fire Service, promised to provide help in time of need. Promises create responsibility, which can create at the obligation. Entrepreneurial Initiatives to Augment budgets 1. Examples include: contracting EMS And fire apparatus at sporting events and festivals, providing OSHA required standby for confined space, entry, provisions of mandated, hazardous, materials,   309 311 312 313 314 training, and non-emergency window boarding 2. Fire Service unique ethical issues  May be a conflict of interest when for fee services are provided - Required by law and enforced by the local fire department  Complaints by local businesses providing similar services - This is a political issue, not necessary and ethics issue - Fire Department creating an unfair advantage in the marketplace  Union objections 3. Issue of contracted fire protection  Wisdom of entrepreneur initiatives should be considered carefully before implementation  Likelihood of contentious reactions by firefighters and competing local businesses as possible  Allegations of unfair practices Hear no evil, see no evil: 1. The issue of loyalty often presents ethical dilemmas 2. Loyalty and trust should be celebrated, however, loyalty and trust can be misplaced and abused 3. Issues of loyalty are often at the root of ethical and moral dilemmas Loyalty and silence ENABLING BEHAVIOR (Actively or passively supporting the actions of others) Assisting others and ethical behavior through one’s own silence 1. Ethically, assisting someone in behaving unethically is equally unethical Union activity / Ethical dilemmas 1. There are times when the demands of both positions seem to compete. Particularly the case in disciplinary issues. 2. In many cases, union officials are required to “walk a thin line “to meet both obligations 3. Union leadership is voluntary and therefore secondary to the obligation of being the firefighter or fire officer